NLUs Argue CLAT 2024 Cannot be in Regional Languages

The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) has informed the Delhi High Court that conducting the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2024 in Hindi and other regional languages is not feasible. The Consortium stated that the syllabus and test pattern for the exam, scheduled to take place in December 2023, have already been announced, and students are preparing accordingly. According to the affidavit filed by the Consortium, the administrative preparations for the exam, such as setting the paper and securing software technical support, began in February 2023 and are now in the advanced stage of completion. Therefore, introducing additional language options for the 2023 CLAT is nearly impossible.

The National Law Universities argued that the CLAT examination should not be compared to other qualifying and entrance examinations like UPSC, IIT-JEE, and NEET. They emphasized that these examinations are conducted on a much larger scale than CLAT and are not held in all the regional languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The NLUs further highlighted that English is the medium of instruction in their institutions, as mandated by the Bar Council of India (BCI) Rules of Legal Education, 2008, for both the five-year and three-year law courses.

Earlier, a law student named Sudhanshu Pathak had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding that CLAT 2024 be conducted in Hindi and other regional languages. In response to the PIL, the NLU formed a committee to assess the possibility of holding the CLAT examination in Indian vernacular languages. The committee held its first meeting on June 25 and is scheduled to conduct the second meeting in the second week of July.